Wednesday, 1 April 2009

3 Tips to Help with Revision

As I rapidly approach my final exams for my law course, I realise that it was naïve to the think my days of preparing for exams were at an end in my final year of university. Even if in the future, I never take another exam in my life, I’m sure I will still face some form of revision in my professional capacity, whatever that may entail. Everyone needs to revise things every now and then; they just probably don’t acknowledge that they are doing it. Below are three quick tips that you probably already know.

Re-Vision: Seeing againThis first piece of advice is probably not terribly helpful to most people, but it really helps if you’ve looked at everything that you are trying to revise already during the year. Revision essentially means “to look at again”, so if you find yourself learning new things, you don’t need help on how to revise, you need help on how to learn. Not All At OnceI find it maddening to look at all of the things I need to know because there’s an instinctive reaction that tells you that you need to go over it all at once. Some people like making revision time tables, some people just get on with it one bit at a time. Although the time table is a good idea, I know I would probably spend too much time working on the table that would be better spent on the actual revision. Whatever you do, breaking it down in to manageable chunks is the way forward.

Recognize when a study group is no good.There’s a massive temptation to cluster together with everyone else revising. I personally can’t stand this, because I just find that everyone ends up scaring each other stupid with various bits of random knowledge they’ve absorbed that is different from what everyone else has. There can however be times when it’s a good idea to ask for help.

Additional Notes:I really hate revision, but it’s like most things: Once you get into it, it can be good fun. However, it’s the kind of fun like going for a run, or writing an essay: It’s fun when it’s finished.